


It’s Longer Now

by magicpurplepineapple



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: 2012, Jalex - Freeform, M/M, Sequel, all time low - Freeform, dont panic, dont panic its longer now, jalex barakarth, zian if you squint
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:15:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25542718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicpurplepineapple/pseuds/magicpurplepineapple
Summary: Sequel to Dont Panic.Read Don't Panic first or non of this will make sense.Post-Apocalyptic road trip across the USA.The Battle of Baltimore is over now, but not without it's casualties.The band journeys to California in search of safety after one too many fights with a gang of fucked up "ex-gays".
Relationships: Jack Barakat/Alex Gaskarth, Rian Dawson/Zack Merrick
Kudos: 2





	1. The End

Trigger warning:  
\- blood  
\- angst  
\- bad times

"Live and let live-" 

A gunshot rings out. The show stops. 

Well, more like several, but one seems louder than the rest. Even through all the chaos, this moment seems to go in slow motion. 

The bullet hits it's target, but no one realizes until the singer steps back. 

He doesn't feel the pain yet, but he knows something isn't right. His hand brushes his side and comes away dripping crimson liquid. 

Alexander Gaskarth, leader of the newly built rebellion, has been shot. 

He stumbles back, his knees giving out as he falls to the make-shift stage. Somewhere to his right, someone calls out his name, but it sounds distorted and jumbled together through the ringing in his ears. 

The world goes blurry as Alex tries to comprehend what's happening, but he's losing too much blood. He's not going to make it, that's for certain. 

Then his head is resting in someone's lap, hot tears hitting Alex's face like rain. 

Through his blurred vision, Alex sees a messy blond stripe in spiked up dark hair. 

"Jack?" 

He can't hear what Jack is saying, and can barely see his face. 

"I love you."

Even if Alex can't hear his fiancé, at least Jack will know. 

Suddenly, Alex is whisked away from the stage, now held in someone else's strong arms and moving quickly away from the scene. 

People call after him, but at this point Alex is too out of it to comprehend. 

But Jack Barakat isn't.  
He follows their bassist, Zachary Merrick, through the crowd of people fighting with all sorts of weapons. He pushes past lesbians with swords and a few people with actual bows and arrows with quivers on their backs, all while still calling out after his best friend and his fiancé. 

"Alex!" He half screams as people begin to part for him like the Red Sea. Funny, the sticky crimson liquid dripping behind Zack's retreating form seems more like the Red Sea than the warring gays on either side of him. 

"Alex!"  
"Jack!" 

For a second Jack is releieved, but then it occurs to him that the voice came from behind him. It's none other than Rian Dawson, who had been the first to react when Alex was shot. Sure, the drummer tried to jump over the drum set, and ended up face first on the floor, but it's the thought that counts. 

"Rian~" Jack is sobbing now, as if that's any sort of shock. "Rian, he- they- Alex~"  
"He's going to be okay," though Rian doesn't sound so sure of that himself. "Zack's heading for the medical tent. They'll be okay." 

At the words medical tent, Jack takes off running. Rian calls out after him, but Jack isn't listening. 

He runs past flying arrows, one of them grazing his shoulder, and through the midst of a daring sword fight, creating a gash in his hand from where he tried to block one of the swords he slid under. 

But a little blood never bothered Jack. A little pain won't kill him, and besides, it's Alex he's worried about. 

The medical tent is flooded with people.  
There's unlicensed doctors, actual surgeons, med school dropouts, and medical interns all helping the injured. 

"Alex!" Jack calls. Three people turn their heads. "Sorry."  
He keeps walking, pushing past people and lab coats and kids in t-shirts just trying to help out. 

"Where is the singer who was on stage?" Jack asks someone, his heart racing.  
"That Alex guy?" Jack nods. The person points to their left, then turns back to their clipboard. Then they frown. "Wait, aren't you the guitar guy?"

But Jack's already running in the direction the stranger pointed. 

The scene before him is a bit chaotic to say the least. Zack is helping nurses cut the bloodied t-shirt off of Alex while a few of the younger helpers bring towels to clean the wound. One doctor is trying to sterilize a pocket knife, presumably to get the bullet out, while another is checking Alex's pulse. 

"Alex!" Jack shouts, running toward him.  
A doctor steps in front of him. "Sir, we need this area clear."  
"That's my fiancé!"  
"I understand, but we cannot help him with too much of a crowd."  
"Please, I- I can't lose him."  
The doctor looks between Jack and the man lying on the table, currently bleeding out.  
"There's a chair there where you can sit." The woman points. "If anyone asks you to leave just say Laura let you sit there, okay?"  
Jack nods, thanking her profusely, but the woman, Laura, just walks back toward the other doctors.  
Zack makes his way over soon enough. 

"They think he's going to be fine," Zack says, smiling softly at Jack. "He's mostly just in shock right now. The bullet didn't hit any important organs, but they also said they don't have any of the right tools to do this properly."  
Jack looks at the crowd of doctors surrounding Alex. 

"He'll be fine," Jack says, his voice shaky with uncertainty. "He has to be."


	2. Silly Chapter Title for a Chapter With a Serious Tone

Trigger Warning:   
\- poor research   
\- no real understanding of weapons or medical practices  
\- lack of understanding of human anatomy blamed completely on the fact that I definitely should've failed that class  
\- angst 

The hotel has now become a hub for every survivor of the apocalypse to gather and tell stories, watch movies, eat, drink, party, and whatever else they want. 

The lobby area is now the living space of a group home for everyone still kicking around after the end of the world. Kids of all ages play games in the lounge while adults worry over the future in the café. 

Meanwhile, the first floor has become a makeshift hospice. Sick, injured, and recovering people are each two to a room, sometimes three or one if it's really bad. 

In the case of the frontman of the band who lead the gays to victory, it's just him. 

Unless you count Jack Barakat, who hasn't left his fiancé's side since the Battle of Baltimore, as everyone's started to call it. 

To label this apocalypse as anything less than a nightmare since it started would be a blatant lie.   
Billions died that day, and yet everyone can still see their lost love ones stumbling aimlessly down streets. 

Sure, the aliens and the robots haven't bothered anyone since day one, but there's still the threat that maybe they aren't friendly. 

No one's figured out why this has happened. No ones discovered a cure for zombification, and by the time they do, the walking corpses may have rotted past fixing. 

But Jack isn't worried about the whole world right now, or the people that are gone, or the dogs he'll probably never see again. 

Jack is worried about the love of his life, Alex Gaskarth, fallen frontman of the band All Time Low. 

He'd been shot down on a makeshift stage at the height of the battle nearly a week ago. Stolen medical supplies from a nearby hospital certainly helps the situation, but it won't fix it. 

Rian and Zack come by to visit sometimes, mostly just filling the small hotel room with useless items and random clutter. Half dead balloons and stuffed animals litter the hotel room like colorful trash. At least that's how Jack sees them. 

It's nice of his friends to bring things for Alex, but children's toys and floating latex eggs tied to a ribbon aren't going to wake Alex up from the coma he's in. 

Laura, who Jack later learned was actually Laura Jane Grace from the band Against Me! Comes by every morning to clean and redress the wound in Alex's abdomen.   
Sure, Laura's not really a doctor, but she is volunteering to help, and for that Jack is forever grateful. 

The doctor, who rarely comes in to check on Alex and strikes Jack as a creep, said Alex should've had a blood transfusion, but they didn't have the supplies for that. The doctor doesn't have high hopes for Jack's fiancé, but Laura says Alex's vitals seem fine, none of his organs were damaged, and he looks otherwise completely fine. 

Of course, Alex is paler than Jack's ever seen him, but a little pale is better than a little dead.

Alex is hooked up to a (cough *stolen* cough) heart monitor. Which is all great and fun until it slows down a little for a few seconds and scares the ever loving shit out of Jack. 

Once it was so bad Jack prayed—actually prayed—despite not even believing in any sort of god. And yet Jack prayed, begging whatever deity that would listen to let his beloved live. 

He held Alex's hand so tight, just praying, begging literally on his knees next to Alex's bed that he'd be okay. 

Rian had walked in on that, though he'll never let Jack know. He'd barely opened the door on his nightly run to bring Jack food and tell him to sleep when he'd heard Jack muttering under his breath. 

Rian had never seen Jack like that.   
Ever. 

Sure, Rian had known Jack was planning to propose, and had seen Jack's gloomy angst from the outside, but he'd never seen him so... broken. So frustrated.   
So desperate. 

Rian decided it best to leave Jack to his own devices that night. Whatever was going on was probably something meant to stay between Jack and Alex.

It's been hard on the whole band, Alex's coma. They're a family—the only family they really have now—and for their frontman to be on the brink of death... well, it's a struggle to say the least. 

Rian and Zack have been bringing gifts for Alex whenever they visit, but they're leaders of a sort of rebellion now. They can't spend all their time in a makeshift hospital room.   
Rian's been helping people adjust, doing his best to console people who have lost loved ones, close friends, siblings, pets, family.   
Zack has been leading people in exercise classes and self defense classes. Zack isn't really qualified to be teaching self defense, but hey, it's the apocalypse. A punch to the face is a punch to the face. Don't close your fingers around your thumb when you make a fist. That's a danger. 

Of course, Alex has probably been the most affected by all of this, whether he realizes it or not. 

Sure maybe he can't comprehend the situation, or maybe he can, but either way this will likely be something that affects the rest of his life. 

Not to mention, theres more than likely unseen complications from the initial entry point of the bullet. While the surgery seemed to have gone well, not all coma patients wake up. Shrapnel from the bullet could have easily hit an organ and that could have gone unnoticed. 

Since the bullet did hit important muscular systems, physical therapy will likely be necessary should Alex ever even wake up. 

Alex's body has faced a lot of trauma just from one simple shot to the abdomen. There's no telling how that will affect his psyche until he wakes up. 

But until then, Jack stays by his side, listening to the steady beeping of the heart monitor as he watches Alex sleep. It's funny, he looks so peacefully 

And yet, he may be already halfway gone.


End file.
